Apple's iOS 6 3D Flyovers aim to be more helpful, less creepy than Google Street View

In August 2011, Apple bought C3 Technologies, known for its work in developing 3D images based on aerial or satellite images. By melding building model outlines with photos taken from satellites or low flying aircraft, C3 figured out how to create virtual models without necessarily sending cameras down the street.

While StreetView is tailored to discovering what an exact address looks like from the perspective of a passing car, Apple's Flyover technology can provide both a bird's eye view of building faces and an interactive, 360 view of panoramas from rooftops or hilltops or virtually any arbitrary, midair vantage point.

Another distinct advantage of Flyover over StreetView is that in StreetView, the user must proceed through panoramic nodes one step at a time. With Flyover, users can hover above a location, viewing the entire street and surrounding streets all at the same time, seeing a continuous representation of an entire path through a given neighborhood.

This continuous pan and zoom navigation is more akin to the approach of Google Earth rather than the "one step at a time" StreetView, but Flyover (below top) is distinctly sharper than Google Earth (below bottom) without going so far as offering a view into people's windows.

One downside to the Flyover/Google Earth approach is that it is far more computationally intensive; rather than looking at a relatively simple, distorted and stitched photograph of a fixed panorama, the system must model thousands of 3D objects (buildings, tree and other structures) within a given scene, then wrap them with photographic skins.

Every 3D scene is dynamically active, meaning it can be rotated around 360 degrees, up and down, and at a wide range of viewing angles relative to the horizon in a vast 3D space. This provides a modeled city view reminiscent of video games such as "InFamous" (or "SimCity," if you were born before 1985), except with far more detailed complexity and a viewing area a big as the world itself.

So far, there are a limited number of cities that have fully modeled support, but the infrastructure is in place to deliver a Flyover experience anywhere. Apple is also reportedly adding support for new cities (like Portland, Oregon, below) at a regular clip. There's also a technology curve that taxes the resources of even the newest iOS hardware, but things can only improve as mobile devices get faster.

Google (among others) is also deploying its own 3D mobile maps, and would realistically be expected to be far ahead of Apple given its distant head start in mapping and 3D modeling with Google Earth. However, developers report that Google's 3D maps are in many cases inferior to the developer builds visible in Apple's iOS 6 Maps app.

View of Moscone Center in Google Earth (left) and Apple Maps (right)

Additionally, Apple is already providing models for areas Google hasn't yet, such as this view of San Francisco's Treasure Island, where Google Earth simply presents the map rendered as a flat surface (which Apple also does in areas where there are not yet models).

When viewing a location top down, you get a view similar to that provided by the current Google Maps server, except that building masses are rendered as 2D outlines rather than as flat 3D with a slight perspective effect. Below, San Francisco's downtown Union Square area in standard 2D.

You can touch the 3D button to get a perspective view, where buildings and other structures pop up from the surface of the map. Drag two fingers up or down and the perspective changes from straight down to about 45 degrees downward. Below, the same view as above, but in standard 3D.

Spin the map with two fingers and you can look down actual street corridors, very similar to the views in Google Earth. Of course, building models only exist for a limited number of major cities. Even in areas where there are not yet models, 3D views of Map's 2D vector outlines provide an additional level of perspective from an airplane-like view. Below, the same map, rotated to look up Market Street.

Where building models do exist, 3D "standard view" provides a useful overview of what a neighborhood's structures look like. It isn't really comparable to StreetView, but it is a very fast and responsive way to explore around neighborhoods. Below, Apple's Cupertino campus in standard 3D mode.

On page 3 of 3: 3D Flyover with satellite images, and which is creepier?

The problem with Apple's approach is this: In everyday life, how often are you looking for a place in "the big city" versus some place "around town"? I'm not talking about living in the sticks, I'm talking about the difference of living just a few miles away from downtown.

When you are looking for visual landmarks in these areas, there are no 3d models or views and, without them, the 2d map image quality is substandard (lower resolution satellite imagery than what we had with Google maps). So how, exactly, is that going to be better?

I REALLY hope the 2d map image data improves in quality before the release. Speaking as someone who uses his iPhone for geocaching, it is clearly a step backwards in terms of image quality right now.

This topic was discussed on one of Gruber's Podcasts a few weeks ago. I agree with the argument for including a "Street View" feature in maps. In general, most people don't visualize the world in "birds-eye" view. We walk on the ground and view things from street level. How many people do you know that have been totally lost when looking at paper map? There were other points being made for a street view, but you'll have to listen to the podcast for that.

Here's a couple examples of why street view might be more helpful than fly-over:

if you're looking for a specific location but don't know which side of the street it's on, can't see that very clearly from fly-over.
if you're staying at a hotel, but don't know what's around you or just want to check out the adjacent businesses.
you're house/apartment hunting and want to see the conditions of the neighboring properties.
you're looking for a business and know the general block/location, but not the address. Street view can zoom in on addresses.
you know the building you're looking for to pick someone up, but don't know where the main entrance is.

Granted my points here aren't that strong, but you get the idea.

Wow, I never knew you could do street view in the current maps app. Way to hide that one on us Apple!

This topic was discussed on one of Gruber's Podcasts a few weeks ago. I agree with the argument for including a "Street View" feature in maps. In general, most people don't visualize the world in "birds-eye" view. We walk on the ground and view things from street level. How many people do you know that have been totally lost when looking at paper map? There were other points being made for a street view, but you'll have to listen to the podcast for that.

Here's a couple examples of why street view might be more helpful than fly-over:

if you're looking for a specific location but don't know which side of the street it's on, can't see that very clearly from fly-over.
if you're staying at a hotel, but don't know what's around you or just want to check out the adjacent businesses.
you're house/apartment hunting and want to see the conditions of the neighboring properties.
you're looking for a business and know the general block/location, but not the address. Street view can zoom in on addresses.
you know the building you're looking for to pick someone up, but don't know where the main entrance is.

Granted my points here aren't that strong, but you get the idea.

Wow, I never knew you could do street view in the current maps app. Way to hide that one on us Apple!

Pretty much my thoughts on the issue. While Flyover is "technically" impressive, Street View is much more useful IMHO. As a NC boy, it was VERY useful when my wife and I took a trip to NYC for our one-year anniversary.

What we really need is 3D models with Street View level data. I like the information Street View gives me - I can "walk" a path before I go there and figure out exactly where I need to go - but the UI is clunky and tedious to use because you can't do it fluidly. Combining the two technologies would give the best results, or at least once the hardware can handle it. Right now it feels like neither solution is perfect although Street View is more useful.

I've been using iOS 6 since the first beta and while Maps has improved significantly I do miss Street View. There is no substitute for finding an address by taking a virtual stroll down the street.

After my initial "fun" with FlyOver I have not used it since. I simply don't see how this feature will be useful in finding a location. On top of that, in an area with any substantial structures you can't even begin to see the street because the height of the building is blocking your view.

I have no problem with this feature being included but i do have a problem with a useful being removed. If Apple wanted to compete Google on mapping then why not make their own Street View. I can't imagine there are patents that prevent Apple from strapping a camera to a car, it's in how the tech is executed after that.

Couldn't use the tech with FlyOver to get very detailed digital images that are very precise in how far away from the edges of the buildings they are so regardless of how far the vehicle is on the street you could adjust your viewing position to be on the sideway and still get the same perspective. I'd personally like a tech that would recognize every vehicle shape and people so that Apple's version of Street View would eliminate all those elements from the image with the tech that allows FlyOver to see so many angles at once. Nice clean streets without mobile object blocking facades an signage.

I really feel bad for all you people who have to rely on a mapping program to find your way and better yet, you need pictures to know if you on the right street or in front of the right store or restaurant. Are you completely lost if your battery dies? Yeah most guys hate asking for direction, but it is not that hard to find a location, you all know streets have names and building have numbers.

I will tell you and I have seen this with Google maps a number of time, it takes you to the wrong physical locations, it will say a place in one locate and the stupid street view is correct for where you are standing but, the actual place it down the road a piece with the correct address and all. So you can be standing there looking at the map with the pin and a street view picture showing you are in the right place but you did not find what you were really looking for. However, if you were just looking for house or building numbers you would have known you were not there yet.

The best part of this, I personal seen these Google maps mistake in Mountain View CA the home of Google, you think they would gave their own neighborhood perfect.